The Wave Pendulum
This free time project aimed to create a pendulum that produced a sinusoidal wave that repeated every 30 seconds consisting of 10 pendulums of varying length. A board was used to pull the pendulums back using homemade electromagnets. The board would only be powered when the starting board was placed on the structure. This project focused on concepts of magnetic fields, magnetic permeability, wire resistance, and pendulum physics. I used Autodesk Inventor, a miter saw, solder iron, angle grinder, multimeter, and a 3D printer.
Ultrasonic Sensor Filter Circuit
Most sonar sensors readers are designed to filter out and process the signal, but as part of a lab we took on the challenge of sending, receiving, and processing the data of a sonar sensor. Tasked with designing this circuit on our own with the hopes of reading a distance from our output of up to 18 feet we had to process the signal to remove noise and add a reasonable gain to our signal to view it without clipping the signal. As part of determining the effectiveness, bode plots where taken over the entire circuit as well as over several individual bandpass filters and op-amps.
The Double Pendulum
The double pendulum project was a simpler project but produced an incredible result. Exemplifying the concepts of chaos theory, this device consists of 2 acrylic pendulum arms attached by skateboard bearings. At the end of the second arm a 3d printed holder allows batteries an LED to glow as the pendulum spins. The whole set up is attached to a wooden board that was painted with fluorescent paint so the LED would make it glow as it passed. This creates unique streaks every time and allows for nice long exposure photos.
Ballistocardiograph Circuit
This circuit was one of many heartbeat detection circuits built as part of an intro electronics course; however, this one is the most advance and unique out of them all. The Ballistocardiograph displays a heartbeat of a person from them standing on a simple scale. The circuit input signal comes from a wheatstone bridge in the scale, that then goes through a series of bandpass filters that eliminates noise and signal of shaking and shifting weight while also amplifying the desired signal.
The Tensegrity Structure
The tensegrity structure was another free time project. This structure used tension and center of gravity concepts to provide the illusion the platform is floating. The structure is made of wood with metal rods in it to shift its center of mass, along with fish line to hold it up. To complete this project I used Autodesk Inventor, a compound miter saw, and a drill.
